Who is Rebecca Williams and Why Is She Wasting Your Money?

What happens when the federal government allocates almost a quarter-billion dollars for e-cigarette research, but doesn’t really want to learn anything? Garbage happens. Garbage like the “studies” churned out by Rebecca Williams of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. According to her bio, she has “several advanced degrees,” which probably says something about American academia.

Rebecca is a star in the crowded but still growing field of e-cigarette junk research. Every one of her papers concludes by claiming it provides evidence that strong regulation is called for — to save the children, of course. And none of it addresses issues that have created problems in the real world. You can laugh at her work if you like, but she has proven herself to be a master at writing successful grant proposals.

As exciting as those studies were, they didn’t hold a candle to what is widely seen as her masterpiece, “VapeCons: E-cigarette user conventions.” In that brilliant exploration of the culture of vape meets, she concluded, “Vaping conventions promote e-cigarette use and social norms without public health having a voice to educate attendees about negative consequences of use. Future research should focus on the effects of attending these conventions on attendees and on indoor air quality in vapor-filled convention rooms.” The best part of this article is that she wrote it without actually attending an event. She merely searched events on Google and wrote about what she found. Carl Phillips wrote an absolutely hilarious blog piece about this article, and you should probably read it.

Williams’s suggestion that “public health” people should be present to “educate” consumers is not much different from Saudi Arabia’s current bid to gain a seat on the UN Commission on Women, or the fact that Iran already has a seat on that commission. Yes, those countries have a strong interest in being part of the conversation due to their very strong views on the subject — they would dearly like to be able to “educate” the rest of the world about their opinions. I trust I do not need to explain why this is the very reason they should not be allowed anywhere near the process.

What did Rebecca find out? Huge discoveries! First, “This study confirms there is a vast array of e-cigarette products available online.” Yes there are. That’s so we can choose the products we like and buy them. If not for Rebecca’s fearless sleuthing though, the National Cancer Institute would probably still be laboring under the belief that e-cigarettes grow in vapers’ gardens. You’ll also be shocked to learn that 38.4% of products arrived without instruction manuals. Egads!

New from the author of 'It gets Vapey at Vape Meets' - 'Ordering Stuff is a Gateway to Getting Stuff' https://t.co/qNJvESAeW9

She has also done some very creative analysis of vapor product pricing. “Almost all vendors featured starter kits cheaper than disposables,” she writes, “Which were often sold in multipacks or at higher prices than starter kits, enticing customers to start with a reusable kit instead of a ‘throw away’ disposable, nudging them towards becoming regular customers needing to purchase e-liquid refills.” Yes, that’s right, the brilliant and evil capitalists, enticing customers to buy the less expensive products!

It goes on along those lines for a couple pages…blah blah blah…but really the important part — to the author — is the first line of the conclusion. “This study provides information that could guide future regulations and/or delivery company screening protocols for e-cigarette products.” Sure, if you say so, Rebecca. Packaging regulations are crucial to public health, because…wait…what does that mean?

More studies needed, she says. More grants from NIH. More money wasted while real questions remain ignored. Why is that? Because Rebecca Williams isn’t just ignorant, she’s deliberately ignorant — as are the bankers at the NIH, the puritans at the CDC, and the prohibitionist deeming authors at the FDA. They don’t want to know anything that might clash with the public narrative they’ve designed, which is all based on this: we just don’t like vaping, and therefore you shouldn’t be allowed to do it. So they’ll direct the money to studying non-issues while the FDA does the real work — banning every vaping product that actually works.

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I spend most of my time studying the regulatory, legislative and scientific challenges to vaping, advocating for our right to exist, and talking with others who do the same. Consider me a source for information, and feel free to agree or disagree with anything I say. I love good coffee and sweet Michigan cherries. My childhood hero was Gordie Howe.

The wasteful way in which our tax dollars are spent boggles my mind. This article nicely illustrates the ridiculous lengths prohibitionists will go to in order to degrade vaping. You are correct in that there is actual science that could be learned, if only the USA was interested in facts instead of propaganda & preserving the status quo.

Jim McDonald

Thanks, Tara. Great comment!

amelia

I love this. I love it so much that I hate to make a tiny nit-picky technical point, but I’m going to anyway: While I’m sure this woman makes a very nice living and far more money than I ever will, and more than anyone who does… whatever this is …. deserves, she’s not getting rich off the grants. You can’t pay yourself with gov grant money – it goes towards “the project”.

Given that, and with her “studies” being laughably basic & also extremely cheap to design (like typing things into Google) – I have no idea what the money could possibly be going to. My best guess: piles of worthless outdated vaping junk from whatever random site in the bowels of the internet her haphazard queries take her, a few very expensive computers and several bored research assistants…

Jim McDonald

Haha! Hilarious. I know they don’t live off the grants. BUT, she wouldn’t have her job at UNC if she didn’t bring in grants, and this is an easy field to exploit for them. Which she has.

amelia

this is quite true. and she certainly gets more in salary by bringing in $$ to the uni.

amelia

your deleted comments were better, btw.

Jim McDonald

You’re kind of a troublemaker.

Morbious Stone

bullshit you can say almost anything is for school with grants seen it right in my face

Morbious Stone

She is a lying idiot

Morbious Stone

crank call the hell out of this retarded whore lol

Henrik Ringtved

Very good article Jim, I really just fell like laughing over that, but giving the the influence it has on the vaping industri it’s not to laugh about.
People like her, feel like saying alot here, but better not.

Broony Saint

WOW, some of these ANTZ really could do with a dose of nicotine to calm down and come in to the world of reality. They pick some of the silliest ideas to write a paper on, it makes me think they brain storm over the a Billy or three, to find ways of scoring money from their university, so they don’t have to go and get a real job.